The so-called plan was for the elite troops stationed around the squad to hold off the enemy once an attack occurred, while the others continued advancing with the box containing the newly captured soldier.
Upon hearing Sael's order, the entire squad swiftly moved into action as planned.
From the center of the formation, Sael saw a hundred men charging forward, rushing towards the enemy blocking their path. However, the enemy was also charging, heading straight for the box in the middle of the squad with astonishing speed. A jet pack on his back left a trail of flames in the dark as he advanced.
The clash was swift, but in an instant, the enemy leaped into the air, launching a glowing orb toward Sael's position as he jumped. The orb burst into a rain of light beams that swept over the hundred men assigned to cover the squad's advance. Some had just raised their Hellguns, while others had begun firing their laser rifles. But none of their attacks hit the target. In the next moment, they were all obliterated by the light beams.
Sael watched in horror as his close comrade, who was lying on the ground with his Hellgun aimed at the enemy descending from the sky, was vaporized before he could even fire a shot.
Turning back in panic, Sael glanced behind him, only to find the situation there was even worse.
The enemy at the rear had already slaughtered all those assigned to cover the squad. He wasn't even charging, merely walking forward, raising his arm as he did so. A multi-barreled weapon on his arm spun rapidly, firing a barrage of laser beams with each rotation, tearing through everything in its path.
At that moment, Sael didn't feel like they were in a battle—it was a massacre.
As he took it all in, a beam of light zipped past him from the left, vaporizing all his comrades in its path.
Then came a second beam, followed by a third.
The beams were fired from shoulder cannons mounted on the enemy's power armor. These terrifying weapons didn't seem to require any cooling or preparation time. Every shot evaporated a whole line of people in an instant.
Sael had the chilling illusion that they weren't being attacked by just two individuals, but by an entire armored regiment, at least ten thousand strong, lying in ambush.
"What's happening on your side? Why haven't you reported in?"
"Are you all dead?"
Sael heard the Inquisitor's cold voice through his communicator. He immediately responded, "We're being slaughtered! Make them stop! Call off the attack!"
After a brief silence, the Inquisitor finally replied, his voice icy and detached. "You're just a group of mercenaries seeking fortune in the depths of Tyron Hive. If you survive to face interrogation, that's what you'll say."
"No... You're not some mercenary leader. You're an Inquisitor. You're—"
"We had an agreement. If you succeeded in your mission, I'd restore your honor. Even if you failed, you'd still gain something—your records will show you died in action a year ago. Your families will receive the compensation."
"No!" Sael screamed as the communication cut off with a beep. He pounded the device in frustration, his eyes darting nervously toward the enemy wreaking havoc in the center of the squad.
In a moment of desperate clarity, he realized that these two enemies weren't just here to butcher them—they were also ensuring the safety of the captured soldier.
With that realization, Sael pulled out his laser pistol, dashed thirty paces forward, and yanked the captured soldier out of the crate that had been disguised as a heavy weapons cache.
"Stop! Stop or I'll kill him!" Sael roared, pressing the pistol against the captive's head. "You kill one more, and he dies!"
Gray, who was cutting through the center of the squad, turned his head at Sael's shout.
To be honest, Gray was surprised. Not by Sael's threat, but by the location of the captured soldier.
The crate, which had been made to look like a heavy weapons cache, seemed to have signal-jamming capabilities. Biological scans hadn't picked up on the captive, or they would have rescued him immediately.
"Tell that one to stop as well!" Sael glared at the other enemy, the one at the rear of the squad, using the hostage to threaten Gray.
Gray glanced at his comrade, Anreda, then back at Sael.
Sael screamed again, his voice trembling with fury. "I said stop him, or el—"
Gray activated bullet time.
Everything around him slowed to a crawl, including Sael's threats, which now sounded stretched and drawn out.
Gray calmly walked over to Sael, carefully checking inside his clothing for any form of identification.
Finding nothing, Gray waited for Sael's eyes to slowly turn towards him.
"Next time, don't bother coming here," Gray said coldly, before driving his fist through Sael's skull, crushing it into his chest.
Bullet time ended. The world snapped back to normal.
Gray shoved the captured soldier back into the crate and closed the lid, turning to resume the massacre of the remaining forces.
The battle ended swiftly. Beta Squad was annihilated.
Gray and Anreda exchanged a glance before approaching the crate and releasing the trembling, barely conscious soldier within.
The young soldier gasped for breath, struggling to find his voice. But with too many things to say, he didn't know where to begin.
"No need for thanks. No need for explanations. We knew everything before we got here," Gray said, gently resting a hand on the soldier's chest to calm him down.
"Yeah, no need to thank us," Anreda added with a grin. "Even though we were already on our way to Tyron III, sitting on a transport ship, ready for a vacation on the beach... But hey, no need to thank us. It's all in a day's work."
Hearing that they had given up their holiday to save him, the young soldier looked guilty. "Maybe I could give you my vacation—"
"I was just kidding," Anreda said, clapping the soldier on the shoulder. "Get back to your barracks, kid."
The soldier saluted them both, then sprinted off toward the base as fast as he could.
Gray and Anreda remained, quietly inspecting each corpse.
"What do you think? Who sent them?" Gray asked, crouching to examine Sael's lifeless body.
"Judiciary forces," Anreda replied, spreading his hands. "Isn't it obvious?"
Gray remained silent, mentally piecing together everything they had learned so far.
Just ten minutes earlier, he and Anreda had been aboard a transport ship bound for Tyron III, granted leave like everyone else in the system, looking forward to a much-deserved vacation.
But before they could even get comfortable in their seats, the mission came in.
A patrol squad of new recruits from the 19th Barracks had been sent on a trial run near some ruins outside the base. Their task was to evade the attention of mutated creatures in the ruins and return to base with a full report of what they had encountered.
But the patrol hadn't returned, nor had they sent any updates.
A drone was dispatched to find them, discovering a large number of dead mutants near the ruins, along with the bodies of six soldiers. The drone had also detected nearly a thousand unidentified individuals moving through the hive.
This information was sent to Gray and Anreda, along with Qin Mo's orders: Kill every last one of these intruders. If the recruit was still alive, rescue him. If not, avenge him.